参考：The United Nations Optional Protocol on the Rights of the Child requires states to outlaw the "producing, distributing, disseminating, importing, exporting, offering, selling or possessing for the above purposes" of child pornography.

Permalink | 記事への反応(0) | 00:05

2010-05-22

■連邦取引委員会の消費者へのMLMについて注意を喚起する文書

Multilevel Marketing Plans
　
Produced in cooperation with the North American Securities Administrators Association
　
November 1996
　
Multilevel marketing plans, also known as "network" or "matrix" marketing, are a way of selling goods or services through distributors. These plans typically promise that if you sign up as a distributor, you will receive commissions -- for both your sales of the plan's goods or services and those of other people you recruit to join the distributors. Multilevel marketing plans usually promise to pay commissions through two or more levels of recruits, known as the distributor's "downline."
　
If a plan offers to pay commissions for recruiting new distributors, watch out! Most states outlaw this practice, which is known as "pyramiding." State laws against pyramiding say that a multilevel marketing plan should only pay commissions for retail sales of goods or services, not for recruiting new distributors.
　
Why is pyramiding prohibited? Because plans that pay commissions for recruiting new distributors inevitably collapse when no new distributors can be recruited. And when a plan collapses, most people -- except perhaps those at the very top of the pyramid -- lose their money.
　
The Federal Trade Commission cannot tell you whether a particular multilevel marketing plan is legal. Nor can it give you advice about whether to join such a plan. You must make that decision yourself. However, the FTC suggests that you use common sense, and consider these seven tips when you make your decision:
　
Avoid any plan that includes commissions for recruiting additional distributors. It may be an illegal pyramid.
　
Beware of plans that ask new distributors to purchase expensive inventory. These plans can collapse quickly -- and also may be thinly-disguised pyramids.
　
Be cautious of plans that claim you will make money through continued growth of your "downline" -- the commissions on sales made by new distributors you recruit -- rather than through sales of products you make yourself.
　
Beware of plans that claim to sell miracle products or promise enormous earnings. Just because a promoter of a plan makes a claim doesn't mean it's true! Ask the promoter of the plan to substantiate claims with hard evidence.
　
Beware of shills -- "decoy" references paid by a plan's promoter to describe their fictional success in earning money through the plan.
　
Don't pay or sign any contracts in an "opportunity meeting" or any other high-pressure situation. Insist on taking your time to think over a decision to join. Talk it over with your spouse, a knowledgeable friend, an accountant or lawyer.
　
Do your homework! Check with your local Better Business Bureau and state Attorney General about any plan you're considering -- especially when the claims about the product or your potential earnings seem too good to be true.
　
For More Information
The FTC also publishes: Wealth-Building Scams; Business Opportunities: Avoiding Vending Machine and Display Rack Scams; Work-at-Home Schemes; Franchise and Business Opportunities; and A Consumer Guide to Buying a Franchise. For a free copy of these brochures or a copy of Best Sellers, a complete list of the FTC's consumer publications, contact:
Consumer Response Center
Federal Trade Commission
Washington, D.C. 20580
(202) 326-2222
TDD: (202) 326-2502
　
　
Where to Complain
You may send questions or complaints to:
Correspondence Branch
Federal Trade Commission
Washington, D.C. 20580
Although the FTC cannot resolve individual disputes, the information you provide may indicate a pattern of possible law violations requiring action by the Commission.
　
You also may want to contact the National Fraud Information Center (NFIC), a project of the National Consumer League, at 1-800-876-7060, 9 a.m. - 5:30 p.m. EST, Monday - Friday. The NFIC is a private nonprofit organization that operates a consumer hotline to provide service and assistance in filing complaints. NFIC helps the FTC and the state Attorneys General by entering complaints into a computerized database to help track and identify fraud operators.

和訳は以下のページ。

http://www.ne.jp/asahi/kato/logos/ftc-mlm.htm

Permalink | 記事への反応(0) | 08:28

2009-11-25

■Being a gypsy

I finally understood something. A cliche, but something that is important to me.

I've seen nine counselors and four psychiatrists since I was eighteen. I've been sexually and verbally abused by my family, had eating problems, both anorexia and bulimia, and have also been abused by two of the therapists. I'm also a returnee, as the Japanese label me, so I've been bullied at school, and never really felt like I fit in anywhere, including my family. Yes, I had a whole lot of problems.

I always though about killing myself, and it was a ritual to think about whether to die and how to live at the top of a building on my birthday night. The air was always cold and clear, and stars just seem so near. Up there, rationality just seemed to blur, and wrong or right became so dull with all the pain. As a person who believes Christ, or perhaps in any other religion, suicide is a sin, but it literally felt like living in hell.

Nevertheless, now I finally understand. It was the sense of isolation and hunger of being accepted, that had been eating me after all. It's such a cliche, but I guess it's true. It irritates me because not one of the therapists were capable of handling a bilingual, abused and wounded person, and I myself never realized how much trouble I had when the other person was only capable of handling Japanese, although I am as good as a native after living here twenty years. Some of the therapists were trained and licensed in U.S. and spoke English, but I also didn't notice the huge difference of them and myself -- I can't give an explicit example, but I guess being a returnee and a natural interpreter gives people a different sense. Now, I clearly see the difference is not ignorable. And, it's almost unbelievable that it took me so long to come to this point.

I hate myself. I hate myself for not realizing all these years, for all the money I spent on therapy, for being abused, for being abused again by a therapist, for not being able to communicate my feelings and for even ignoring my own senses just to be accepted by my therapists themselves.

Perhaps being bilingual to me is much more troublesome than others say. Hopefully I can now be more comfortable by accepting that I'm like a gypsy. I've always been an outlaw, anyway. And I hope I can be able to connect with people and have real relationships. All the things I wanted from a therapist are the same things I wanted from normal other human beings. I know there are things that need to be covered by professionals, but now that I realize even professionals can't help, and I can't be really accepted by any professional, as long the relationship is kept "professional."